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Ouya Julie Uhrman of Ouya

Updated: Ouya, the Android gaming console for television-based games, is working to launch multi-player gaming features later this year, said Julie Uhrman, founder and CEO of Ouya, in a talk at South By Southwest.

The startup already has local multiplayer games being prepared for launch. And traditional multiplayer online games will be available for the public launch in June, she said. But certain features like chat, leaderboards and the like won't be available from Ouya at launch. For now, companies will have to build those features themselves. Ouya is building those features and hopes to have them ready by the end of the year, she said.

That would make it possible for Ouya to host massively multiplayer online games that have been popular on other platforms.

Ouya plans to ship its Android gaming console to supporters by the end of March, said Uhrman. The company also plans to ship to pre-order customers by June and will sell it through Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers.

Ouya recently drew massive interest last July and raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter from 63,000 supporters after targeting just $950,000 in support. Ouya raised the massive amount on Kickstarter without even having a website. The device includes 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It was designed by Yves Behar. There are now about 481 games being built for the device, according to one website, Uhrman said.

Asked by interviewer Joshua Topolsky about integration of streaming services such as Google, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, Uhrman said the Ouya has the capabilities for streaming video and audio. She didn't have an answer on those large players but said the Ouya has it hopes to have that type of content at launch.

Uhrman said that there are many popular games that are on mobile devices and not on consoles that would work on television. With Ouya, developers don't need millions of dollars to make a console-style game. Instead they can release a game for much less cost. Uhrman compared it to network versus cable television.

"You'd never see The Sopranos or Breaking Bad (on network TV). It wouldn't happen," Uhrman said. "You want something that excites you and challenges you."

Uhrman said she wants to bring these newer, exciting games to television, which previously wasn't possible because developers needed massive budgets to get onto the XBOX or Playstation.

For developers they can also choose how to monetize their games, through in-app purchases, freemium, or subscription models, all of which were hard with traditional consoles.

Updated: This post was updated to reflect the fact that Ouya will enable online multiplayer games at launch, but certain features like chat and leaderboards won't be available until later this year.